Supernova||Book 1 [Wattys 2024]

Episode 11.3 Just Say it

He'd let him in but neither of them were speaking.

"Do you want a drink or something?" Jorah attempted to kill the nerve wrecking silence.

Nine had just shown up on his doorstep, practically in the middle of the night, leaving the party to ask him something. What could possibly be that pressing that couldn't wait? Or so personal that he couldn't text or call?

Jorah's knee bounced as he waited for Nine to say something.

"What---did you think of the song?" Nine finally spoke.

"It was..good.." Jorah tempered his response.

"Yea?" Nine looked relieved. "I wrote it."

This wasn't extraordinary. Nine was a singer, it made sense that he would also write his own songs. However, hearing him make that admission now, after hearing him sing it with his eyes trained on him for most of the performance, made Jorah feel nervous.

"Oh yeah?" He tried to play it cool. "Good job."

"Thanks." Nine squeezed out a little smile. Silence again.

"Is that why you came? To find out how I felt about the song?" Jorah asked.

Nine's eyes shot up to meet Jorah's. "No. Not really..."

It was clear there was something on Nine's mind and his apparent reluctance to speak was only making Jorah more anxious

"Then?" Jorah raised a brow.

Nine took a deep breath and turned his body towards Jorah as they sat on the sofa. "I've been thinking about this a lot...and today is the last day...so I just figured I would ask...just to be sure." This opening sequence made Jorah's heart beat thunderously. "That night...on the island. You really don't remember what happened?"

Jorah's heart stopped. Why was he bringing that up?

"What night?" he asked.

Nine made a face. "The night when I came to your room...and we were drinking."

"Oh..." Jorah replied dramatically. "That night. Yeah, I remember." He looked at Nine. "You drank too much and refused to go back to your room, so you ended up stealing my bed."

"And that was it?" Nine asked cautiously. "I didn't...say anything? I didn't...do anything?"

"As a matter of fact, you did." Jorah tried to remain calm. He'd tried to put it behind him so why was Nine suddenly bringing this up?

Nine's eyes lit up. "I did?"

Jorah nodded. "You were telling me to call you by your name."

Nine nodded. "Anything else?"

Jorah sucked in his bottom lip. He remembered everything like it was yesterday "You were telling me that you missed me."

"Anything else?" Nine pressed. "Did I..do anything weird?"

Shit! Jorah screamed internally. Just drop it. Why was he suddenly so curious?

Nine wasn't the one who'd done something weird, it was him. He'd been the one to kiss Nine first.

Jorah swallowed and shook his head. "No. You didn't do anything weird."

When Nine's face fell, Jorah looked into his empty glass to avoid his eyes. It was better this way. He just needed to keep up the lie.

But it seemed Nine had other plans. "But I remember it differently..." he began again.

Jorah looked at him, "Oh? What do you remember?"